19 Apr Still Using Paper Charts? Why Your Pediatric Office Should Adopt an EMR Now.
In a typical day, how do patient records move through your pediatric office? Your administrative staff pulls files for scheduled patients and creates records for new patients. Your nurse/medical assistant updates those files with each patient’s vitals. Your pediatricians take copious notes as they see each patient. Then, each file gets passed back through the nursing team for more updates and back to the administrative staff for payment processing and filing.
Paper-Based Systems Are a Lot of Work–And Still Create Significant Risks.
With a paper-based medical record system, pediatric offices can effectively maintain a tight grip on their patient information. However, it is ultimately slow-moving, inefficient, and at the mercy of human error.
What’s the Worst That Can Happen, Anyway?
One doctor’s bad handwriting can result in misdiagnosis. One admin’s incorrect filing can delay billing. Your pediatric office might not have enough space for the ever-growing paper-based medical record system, requiring additional storage. Something predictable, such as a minor fire, could destroy all of your patient records.
What You’re Missing When You Don’t Have an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) System
This fear postpones, if not completely blocks, a pediatric office from ditching an archaic paper-based system, trying a more efficient alternative, and experiencing the benefits of that alternative. In this article, we will explore some of the benefits your pediatric office could be missing out on.
Better Bottomline. Your practice spends thousands of dollars monthly paying staff to transcribe, file, organize, and fastidiously maintain paper records–and then there’s accounts receivable. An EMR system substantially decreases that labor time by automating a large number of tasks. For example, it uses digital coding to handle payment processing and patient reimbursement.
Less Storage. An EMR eliminates the need for file cabinets and office clutter. Your patient records are stored digitally and they are backed up to the cloud. In addition, this lessens the risk of lost charts.
Improved Documentation. How many times has one of your administrative staff members wasted a half hour trying to discern what’s written on a patient form? How many times has a critical section of your patient form been handed in without being filled out? An EMR requires every important section of patient forms to be filled out before the patient can complete the check-in process. It also removes handwriting-related issues.
Seamless Collaboration. An electronic record system allows approved medical professionals at different facilities open up, add comments, and share patient health records. This kind of access results in faster, more accurate diagnosis and treatments.
Are You Still Worried About Converting to EMR? We’ve Got You Covered.
Are you still concerned with or have questions regarding the benefits of adopting an EMR? Don’t worry. We’ve addressed the top three most common fears pediatric offices face when they consider EMRs. To learn more about those fears and how to overcome them, read our post, Bye, Bye Paper. Hello Technology.
